Biography

Synopsis

Lord Nibbler was responsible for pushing Fry into the cryogenic tube and sending him to the year 3000. Nibbler was stationed on Vergon 6 until Leela discovered him there and instantly fell for his cuteness. He is the Nibblonian Ambassador on Earth and has recently become a member of the Planet Express crew.

Nibbler continued to be stationed on Vergon 6 for the next thousand years, but due to Dark Matter being the excrement of the Nibblonians, the planet's core was slowly filled with the valuable Dark Matter. As a result, a DOOP mining operation started, and as the core was mined out, the planet was left hollow and as a consequence dangerously sensitive for a coming implosion. The Nibblonians soon fled the planet, but Nibbler was pooping at the time, and was thus left behind.

Hiding his intelligence

On 13 April, 3000, the Planet Express crew - Leela, Bender and Fry - landed on Vergon 6 to rescue the animals left from the coming implosion of the planet. They encountered Nibbler (who ate the rest of the animals), and fled moments before the planet's doom. Nibbler hid his real identity and intelligence from the crew, and indeed from all non-Nibblonians he would encounter, and pretended to just be a dumb pet. Leela took Nibbler in, in the belief that he was dog-like in intelligence, and made him her pet.

Lord Nibbler hid his intelligence until the day the Earth stood stupid, when he told Leela the truth about his orgins. This eventually helped Fry defeat the Brain Spawn, an enemy to the Nibblonians. After this, he erased Leela's memory in order to keep everything in secret. While Fry's memories were not erased, no-one believed his story, and with time he forgot it. Later, Nibbler got Fry into the game, as he led him through time to destroy the Infosphere. He then deleted Fry's memory as well, so that he could fulfil his purpose undetected.

Revealed to the Crew

In 3007, he finally revealed his true nature to the whole crew during a failed attempt to avert disaster and on seeing the formation of a dangerous tear in the time-space continuum. Nibbler escaped the universe by swallowing himself, forgetting to blank everyone's memories. He returned in 3008, after Yivo was gone. It is unknown how he managed to get back to our universe. Nibbler was kidnapped by Mom's sons and imprisoned in a dark matter farm with hundreds of other Nibblonians. After this, he once again didn't wipe their memories. Despite everybody knowing that he was sentient, the Planet Express crew continued to treat him like a pet... until August of 3010, when he was granted the status of crew member.

Character description

Appearance and clothing

Nibbler has (like other Nibblonians) three eyes, one of which is on an "eye stalk", a single nostril, and fang-like teeth. He is knee-tall compared to humans, and mostly covered in fur.

While at the headquarters, he always wears a red cape, small yellow shoes and baby diapers. When accompanied by other Nibblonians and on missions, however, he is much more formally dressed. He also has a naval uniform which he dresses up in on occasion, and in which his best friend for some reason died.

Name

As Nibbler remarks in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid", his true name is not really Nibbler - that was just the name that Leela gave him when first finding him (1ACV04). The other Nibblonians uses this name as well, however, when speaking in English, because his true name would take too long to pronounce properly, or so he claims.

Age

As shown in "The Why of Fry", Nibbler was already an adult with no apparent physical changes in 1999 as compared to the 31st century. In the same episode, he tells Fry that his species "live long". As a bonus to the Volume Two DVD, Nibbler's age was revealed to be 3,277.

When Nibbler's right fang broke in "I Second that Emotion", the veterinarian told Leela that the rings on his tooth could indicate his age ("if he's anything like the common tree"). Taking his word for granted, this had Leela assume that Nibbler was five years for a while.

Family

Nibbler has no known direct family, although Leela could be seen as his adoptive mother, or owner.

Personality

While on the surface pretending to be a cuddly pet - long even disguising his intelligence entirely - Nibbler is highly intelligent and sophisticated. He enjoys being Leela's "schnuchoms", but sometimes long for intelligent conversation and approval in the human world.

Production

The character of Nibbler was planned before the pilot, including that he would really be a talking, intelligent alien, and that he would hold the truth of the greater conspiracy that had Fry frozen. While everything wasn't planned out from the beginning, the writers included Nibbler's shadow for a short second as Fry falls into the tube in "Space Pilot 3000", in spite of Nibbler's first real appearance being several episodes later, and in spite of the bigger conspiracy starting to unveil several seasons later.

His original appearance was hard to pin-point. Matt Groening insisted that he was supposed to be extremely cute, but that when looking at his separate components - his eye stalk, his one nostril, his fangs - he seems really ugly. In one original design of Nibbler, he would have drool constantly hanging from his nostril, but without ever dripping.[3]

In "Anthology of Interest I", when Fry misses the freezer by an inch in the alternate future the What-If Machine shows, Nibbler's shadow is gone, though this may be why Fry doesn't go to the future in that separate version of the timeline.

However, in "The Why of Fry", when Fry tries to cross Nibbler and eventually decides to let himself be sent to the future after all, there are two shadows under the desk - those of Nibbler and Fry (seen earlier in "Jurassic Bark").

His third eye can summon his ship and change the appearance of other beings (this has only been done to Fry), however, this drains his strength and he can only keep it up for a short period of time.

Quotes

Fry: But I know you in the future, I clean your poop!Nibbler: Possible, my people live long and are celebrated poopers.

Nibbler: The poop-eradication is but one aspect of your importance.

Fry: I did do the nasty in the pasty.Nibbler: Yes, that past nastification is what gives you your special powers.

Nibbler: Alas, our kitten-class attack ships were no match for their mighty chairs.

Nibbler: The universe is doomed. Doomed!Fry: Can I pull up my pants now?Nibbler: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

Nibbler: Everyone out of the universe, quick!

Nibbler: Stop, you fools!Leela: Nibbler! You--you can talk?Nibbler: I can do more than talk. I can pontificate!

Nibbler: We must remove the time-tattoo as quickly and painlessly as possible![Cut to Fry's apartment. Fry is on the sofa screaming in agony while the Professor, Bender and Bubblegum hold him down. Leela and Lars keep watch at the door. They see the Scammer Aliens approaching.]Lars: Quick, they're coming![Nibbler finishes lasering the tattoo off Fry's butt.]Nibbler: The tatoo is gone. I saved the space-time continuum and 40% of your rectum.[Everyone cheers.]Bubblegum: That's all you need!

References

^Nibbler mentions that he was stationed on Vergon 6 in his conversation with Fry at Applied Cryogenics on 31 December, 1999 in "The Why of Fry".

^"Love's Labours Lost in Space" commentaries: "In designing Nibbler I went– I wanted to do– I wanted to see if I could make a character that was really ugly when you looked at the components, he's got one nostril, he's got fangs and an eye ball on a stalk on the top of his head. And yet he is really– pretty cute, huh?" - Matt Groening (transcript)